Mass Effect: Paragon's Heart
by Asteral de Tellimor
Summary: After the destruction of the Reapers, Garrus Vakarian leads the search for the love of his life: Commander Artemis Shepard. After he finds her, they have the rest of their lives to come to terms with the chaos of the invasion - far too much for anyone. Only their love for each other can heal their wounds - both on the outside and within.
1. Post Tempestas

He sat quietly in the shuttle, his eyes only for the picture in his hands. He would have looked almost peaceful to anyone who didn't know him, or why he was there at all. Perhaps another turian might have recognised the emotional hurricane that was spinning inside him, maybe his father, or sister. As it was, the shuttle was occupied by four of the only people in the universe who could truly understand the mission they were on; Zaeed Massani, Londoner, merc and one-time head of the Blue Suns; Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, quarian, admiral of the Migrant Fleet; Dr. Liara T'Soni, asari, archaeologist and Shadow Broker; and James Vega, Alliance marine, shameless womaniser and all-round Pacific coast bad boy.

After the fall, after the Reapers had been destroyed, Garrus had immediately attempted to launch a rescue mission to save Artemis, the legendary Commander Shepard. He had barely taken two steps before nearly falling unconscious. Being side-swiped by an exploding Mako tank, it turned out, was not all that good for your health.

A few hours later, though, he had recovered and was already organising a rescue party. After Tali and the Normandy's engineers, except for Adams, who was still in the infirmary, had fixed the Normandy's drive core, they wasted no time in getting back to the Citadel. It took them a week to do, with the relays down.

But now they were here, thanks to Joker using the nearby stars gravity to slingshot them to Earth. The crew had split into two teams. Jacob, Jack, Samara, Wrex, Traynor and Ashley had taken the other shuttle. Miranda, Javik and Dr. Chakwas were coordinating the search from the Normandy.

But, despite their best efforts, they were still no closer to finding her after three days. All the medical statistics said that she was already dead. With no water, food or medi-gel, Shepard should not, could not, have survived this long. But Miranda had put better odds on her cybernetics. There was so much synthetic in her, Miranda had argued, that she may well still be alive. No one voiced the obvious flaw, that the Crucible, along with the Reapers, the geth and EDI, had probably fried her synthetic parts.

It was the only hope that he could cling to. The only chance she had left. He had only ever told her once. Only when she had made the final run to the beam did he tell her that he loved her. No jokes, no awkward 'reunion protocols', just the straight truth. For his sake, more than anything, she couldn't be dead.

_Spirits, please_, he begged to himself. _Not now. Not after everything. Please, don't take her away from me._

"30 seconds to the LZ!" Cortez shouted from the front. The team stood up, ready to disembark, but Garrus remained where he was, still staring at the picture. Tali leaned over, and place a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find her, Garrus." She encouraged him. "We'll find her." Garrus lowered his hand, placing the other on his shoulder, holding on to Tali's hand for a moment, before he too stood up. The shuttle touched down, and Cortez opened the door. The five stepped out.

"I'll wait here." Cortez spoke over the radio. "Contact me if you find anything."

"Roger that." Garrus opened a channel to the Normandy. "Miranda, we're at the site." He activated his omni-tool, as did the rest of the group. "Can you focus the search through our omni-tools?"

"I'm picking up bio-signs roughly 200 metres to your left. You'll have a five metre zone to search."

"Got it." He immediately jogged away to the site, leaving the others to try and catch up. Although they had spent several hours that day alone following false leads, and the others were physically exhausted, Garrus couldn't give up on her. And that thought alone drove him on.

He came to the site, and brought up his omni-tool. He scanned the environment, and found the target behind a pile of rubble. He turned the corner, and his hopes were dashed once again.

"It's just a keeper. Nothing more." He relayed to the team and the Normandy. "Damn."

"Sorry, Garrus. I'll do another scan." Miranda spoke back, sensing his dejection.

"Sure," he mumbled to himself. "Another scan." He was about to move away, when the keeper wandered off, kicking a sheet of rusted metal out of the way. It revealed something that caught his eye, and immediately his hope soared: the label 'N7'. He moved towards it with trepidation. The last time he had found that label, it had belonged to a half-mauled marine who was stationed on the Citadel when it had been captured.

With shaking hands, he grasped the edge of the metal, and lifted it away. It was heavier than it looked, but he managed to heave it to one side. He looked back at the marine – and straight into the face of his beloved. He had found her!

"Bravo team, I've found her! I repeat I've found her!" He nearly shouted into the mike. "Transmitting coordinates now." He pressed the locator button on his omni-tool, then he leaned in and placed a finger on her neck, just over her carotid artery. A faint, slow and arrhythmic pulse was present, but after ten days, a pulse was all he needed.

"Joker, she's alive! Spirits above, she's alive! Swing the Normandy round now…"

* * *

They had taken her to the emergency medical facility in London, being the closest hospital they could get to without the relays. The chief consultant on site had found her an operating theatre in minutes, and she was rushed in without further ado. The entire Normandy crew had waited outside the theatre in St. Barts, one of the only buildings left standing after the invasion, for hours. Every time a nurse or surgeon came in or out, Garrus would almost threaten them with questions, until one of the others – usually Tali – calmed him down. Eventually, exhaustion took them, as one by one they went back to their bunks on the Normandy. Eventually only Garrus, with Tali sleeping on his shoulders, was left. But no matter how exhausted he was, sleep wouldn't find him.

The next morning, Dr. Chakwas, who had helped oversee the surgery, came out, and sat next to him.

"Well?" He said, never a man more desperate. "Did she…"

"We managed to stabilise her." Dr. Chakwas started, the bags under her eyes betraying her exhaustion. "It seems that the Illusive Man had implanted software into her implants to protect them from the Crucible. Sneaky bastard. We have her on a drip to restore her fluids and energy levels. She's still critical, but the next 24 hours will decide it. There's nothing more we can do but wait… and pray, I guess. You can go in if you want, both of you. If you need me, I'll be on the Normandy, though probably fast asleep." She punctuated her assertion with a deep yawn, and when she looked around, Garrus had gone. He was already in the theatre, sitting on the chair next to her bed, both hands around her left, his head bowed, as if in prayer. For all the doctor knew, he might well have been.

Vega came down the corridor then, and saw him with Shepard. A shared look with Karin said everything, and he picked up Tali's sleeping form and carried her back to the Normandy with the doctor.

* * *

The next day passed by theatre 9 in a blur. As the Normandy crew either slept off their exhaustion or helped around the hospital area, Garrus sat next to Artemis, hoping beyond hope that she would wake up. At some point, he fell asleep, his head resting over her stomach. As he slept, his dreams took him back to the final assault. The Mako clipping his side; Tali, of all people, half carrying, half dragging him up the Normandy's hangar bay ramp; the look on Shepard's face as she turned and headed towards the beam.

He was just remembering the time where they had first gotten together, just behind the Thanix battery – the banter about 'letting off steam' and 'reach and flexibility' bringing a smile to his face – when he felt something. It took him a moment to realise that it was Shepard. He lifted his head, slowly, hoping beyond all hope, and looked up to see her smile weakly back at him. And the last shred of turian dignity he had left finally abandoned him, as he broke down into tears of pure joy.

"Hey, Garrus." She whispered. "So, a turian in a London hospital. You come here often?"


	2. You Only Live Twice

Joker was asleep in his chair in the cockpit when the call came through. He was woken rather abruptly by the comm beeping furiously at him, as if the Normandy herself knew the importance of the call.

"Joker, you'd better get everyone down here." Garrus was obviously excited, and when it clicked in Joker's brain the only reason why that would be, he snapped up like a shot.

"She's awake? The commander's awake?" Joker almost pleaded.

"You'd better believe it!" Garrus answered with a chuckle. Joker was out of his seat as fast as his bones would allow him.

"EDI, Shepard's awake! We've got to…" It was then that he remembered. EDI was a burnt out shell in the AI core. Although her core functions were protected by the main server, they hadn't managed to extract her personality functions from it yet. There was no guarantee that they could.

Joker almost visibly faded at the prospect. He roused the others, and whilst they rushed to the hospital, Joker was less enthusiastic. _Garrus got his happy ending_, he thought. _Will I?_

* * *

Karin was the first there when Joker had made the call. She burst into the theatre to find Artemis alive and well. She also found Garrus crying his eyes out, and seriously hoped Liara was going to bring Glyph – and his photographic skills – with her.

"Damn it, commander." She laughed. "One of these days you _are_ going to run out of lives, you know. Can you please stop going through them faster than your thermal clips?"

"I'll try my best, doctor." Shepard smiled back. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise. Now, before you go running off and gunning down another invincible foe, I'm going to take this opportunity to run a few tests while you're still bedridden."

"Alright, doctor. Can there be no scalpels this time as well?"

"It seems that I am doomed to be forever disappointed on that front, Shepard." Karin smiled at her.

"Um," Garrus asked, seemingly missing the joke. "Scalpels?"

"Another time, sweetie." Shepard smiled and squeezed his hands, whilst Dr. Chakwas scanned the commander with her omni-tool. Just then, Tali and Vega barged in, closely followed by Liara and then Joker and Traynor, the former being helped along by the latter.

"Shepard! By the goddess, you're alive!" Liara almost ran to the other side of the bed.

"Well, shit." Vega laughed. "I know I say this far too much for anyone's good, but you are truly _loco_, commander. Can't even die without screwing things up somehow."

"I missed you too, Vega."

Everyone gathered around, and more than a few tears were shed, when all of a sudden –

"Shepard!" Silence descended as everyone turned to look at Tali, and whilst they couldn't see her face very well, it was quite obvious that she was utterly furious.

"Tali….?" Liara asked timidly.

"Keelah, Shepard, if you ever try to do something like this to Garrus again, you heartless, self-centred little bosh'tet, I swear I won't rest until I've found you and made you wish you could die. You have no idea what you put him through when you 'died' on the citadel. He was an absolute mess of a man, barely able to think straight. I hope this isn't how you intend to treat him for the rest of his life, Commander Artemis Shepard, because believe me you'll regret it if you do." Everyone looked in utter shock at Tali, then expectantly at Shepard. She sat up a little straighter in the bed, and looked Tali squarely in the eyes before saying, "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, I am so happy to see that you survived with your spirit intact, but can you please stop protecting Garrus?" She turned to smile at the love of her life, who was utterly gobsmacked by the way Tali had reacted. "That's my job, and I have the rest of our lives to keep doing it." And, for the second time in as many minutes, Shepard successfully relieved Garrus of his remaining Turian dignity as he pulled her into the deepest, most tender hug he had ever given anyone, totally lost for words.

And as everyone else reached for the nearest box of tissues, Tali lost what remained of any quarian dignity she had and joined Garrus in the most heartfelt and awkward bear hug that any of them had ever seen.

* * *

As the Normandy crew slowly made their way towards theatre 9, rejoicing that their commander had, yet again, crawled her way out of the jaws of death, Javik sat in the observation deck, contemplating his future. Now the Reapers had been destroyed, there really wasn't a need for the Prothean avatar of vengeance to exist anymore. Of course, he wasn't that anymore. His task complete, his mission over, his psyche had begun to settle into a more open-minded pattern. He was now at a cross-roads, for the first time in 50,000 years. From the moment of his birth there were only two choices – win or die. He had been fighting all his life. Peace was an unusual thing for him.

He had seriously considered ending his life, and joining his brothers and sisters. He suppose he would have, if he had seen the contents of the memory shard he carried. The pain that was contained within it. He sat with the very thing in front of him. He looked down at it, concern etched on his face. He didn't know what it contained – if he did, it really wouldn't serve much of a purpose. All he knew was that when he went to sleep, his world was burning around him – and 50,000 years later, a new galaxy, one in which he was alone amongst billions, was suffering the same fate. He may not have saved his people, but he had avenged them, saving the younger races in the process. He had fought the Reapers twice, more than anyone in all of history had managed, even the Leviathans themselves. Did he really need that pain? Had he not suffered enough?

He closed his eyes and nodded to himself, seemingly making up his mind. He stood up, picked up his particle rifle – he never did find out how Shepard had gotten her hands on such ancient weapons – and shot the memory shard. Javik looked at the scorched remains, the last memories of his people, and smiled. For the first time in 50,000 years, he was free.

"What it did it do to you?" A voice came from behind him.

"Nothing," Javik replied. "And I think the universe would be better off it continued to do so."

"I'll take your word for it. I was just going to check in on Shepard, although I think that the shock might not be the best thing for her right now."

"The commander is strong." Javik reassured the voice. "You need not worry."

"I'm sure. Care to join me?"

"Of course, Admiral."

* * *

It had been an hour or so since Shepard had regained consciousness, and most of the crew had come and gone, leaving her to rest. All except for Garrus, of course, who just sat there, holding her hand, talking endlessly about anything, still trying to accept that it was all real.

"You know, Arty," he said. "I've been giving it some thought, and I've come to the professional conclusion that we both really, _really_ need to retire."

"Somewhere warm and tropical?" Artemis smiled. "Where we can live off the royalties from the vids?"

"Something like that." He smiled back, then his omni-tool started flashing – a message had come through, one that he had been expecting all day.

"What is it, Garrus?" Shepard asked, curious.

"Well," He had an almost guilty look about his turian features, one which only Shepard would have spotted. "As we were combing through the Citadel looking for you, we found some other survivors. Most were just people who had somehow escaped the worst of the Reaper attack, but there was one person in particular that you might like to see."

"Who's that?" She asked, confused, just as the door opened. Javik stepped in, and gave the commander a rare smile, followed closely by –

"Well, damn if you aren't a sight for sore eyes! Seems some of us really only do live twice."

Shepard stared, hardly believing what – or more particularly, who – she was seeing. No part of her brain could convince her that, in defiance of every law the universe had, the man standing in front of her was none other than -

"Anderson!"


End file.
